


The Tree of Souls

by tei



Category: Avatar (2009)
Genre: Gen, My First Fanfic
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2010-02-10
Updated: 2010-02-10
Packaged: 2017-10-07 04:00:20
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 727
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/61220
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/tei/pseuds/tei
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>The result of media hype coupled with too much Latin vocab.</p><p>Takes place right before Jake is told that the god isn't going to take sides in the war.</p>
            </blockquote>





	The Tree of Souls

_Jake Sully, you come here for wisdom. Is that right?_

  


  


   Jake squirms uncomfortably as the glowing pink branches brush against him. "I guess," he mutters. It serves no purpose to speak out loud; after all, if the Tree of Souls can speak to his mind, he can speak to its. His. Theirs. Whatever the proper pronoun is for a tree full of dead people. 

  


  


  


_Why do you want that, Jake Sully?_

  


  


  


   Jake frowns. Frowning feels uncomfortable in this body, like bending wood past its capacity. "Everyone else--" he stops. He wants wisdom because everyone else has it? That can't be right. Then again, there's no point in lying. 

  


  


  


"Do I need a reason?" he growls. 

  


  


  


The tree's glowing fingers sway, and Jake catches a hint of laughter. _Your kind do not come seeking wisdom. _

  


  


  


Jake is beginning to get annoyed. "Why can't you just talk to me? The way you talk to the others?"

  


  


  


Again he feels the branches rustling. _How do you know how I talk to the others?_

  


  


  


"Not like this, I'm pretty sure. I am Omaticaya. I am not human when..." he trails off, and stands for a moment, breathing hard as if he had just been running. "I am not human," he repeats, trying the words. They fill him with fear. "I am human," he says. It is an admission, but only half of defeat: the other half is pride, or something like it. 

  


  


  


_You wouldn't understand me if I did, human._

  


  


  


Jake feels the anger rising in him, the same anger he feels when he listens to the jeers of the Marines as he falls behind again, his arms pumping the wheels but still not as fast as flesh and blood legs strengthened by years of morning drills. But he is used to the derision of the Marines-- and when he is here, in the forest, he can almost forget it. He is not used to being derided by a tree. 

  


  


  


"Try me."

  


  


  


The glowing strands play around him as if pushed by an invisible wind. _What do you mean when you say "time"?_ The tree asks. 

  


  


  


Jake clears his throat and speaks up, unnecessarily, for the first time. "Time. Seconds. Minutes. You need it to do stuff in. There's never enough of it. Once you've used your share, you die." It is not an overly philosophical answer, but Jake was always taught to prize good aim over philosophy. 

  


  


  


_When you say "time", you do not mean "eternity". They are one and the same for me, and for us. There is no time worth having except eternity. Your people know this, but you are afraid of it, so you hack up time the way you hack up the planet you live on. You make years and days and hours and minutes. You count them, petrified of losing just one. But the number that you've already lost is far greater than the number you have._

  


  


  


"Thanks for reminding me. We're really big on mortality, us humans. We love it, can't get enough of it. Talk about it all the time." Jake isn't sure if he's being sarcastic or not. And, because he's thinking it and there's no point in hiding: "I can't believe I'm being lectured by a tree."

  


  


  


_It is what you asked for. _

  


  


  


Jake doesn't answer; it's true. 

  


  


  


_And what is a tree?_

  


  


He has stopped bothering to censor his thoughts; besides the fact that the Tree of Souls can hear them just as loudly as his words, he is starting to get the feeling that it doesn't mind his bluntness. "A tree is a tall piece of wood with leaves. My version doesn't normally include glowing pink tentacles, but there's an exception to every rule."

_You say we are tall because we reach farther to the sky than you do. You do not see it, but we also reach farther into the ground than you do. You decide that that isn't important, simply because it is not visible._

"And how about the part of me that's not visible?" Jake whispers fiercely. Unwanted images flash through his mind: Quaritch, climbing into his earth-shaking robot-body; Parker, pointing to the unobtanium resources under the Home Tree; his own immobile body in its metal box.

_I see you, Jake Sully. Even that._

Footsteps behind him. Neytiri. "And does she?" he mouths silently.

_You decide._


End file.
